May 11, 2007
Are you superstitious? When asked, most people deny they are, laugh, and move on to another topic. However, it seems that most people do have some beliefs or actions that could be termed superstitious.
The end of the school year is fast approaching with all the papers, projects and tests that accompany it. Do you know any students who sleep with their school book under their pillow "just in case it does help?" I do. What about the student who uses only blue ink, or black?
Superstitious acts rarely make sense to anyone but the person carrying out the acts. On the day of a big competition, some students will eat only ham omelets for breakfast; some pile books in their lockers the same way every day; and others refuse to wash uniforms until a defeat.
Yet superstitious behaviors are not just for students. For example, sports fans have seen athletes perform many different rituals, from the baseball player who crosses himself when coming up to bat to the basketball player who was known to wear his college shorts under his team uniform.
Football players talk about how they always eat the same pre-game meal, and a local celebrity reported that he always had to drive the exact same route to the stadium every day.
What about other celebrities? Bands that want specific things backstage, like M&M's with all the green candies removed or only a certain brand of bottled water.
Of course, there are the standard superstitions that have stood the test of time. Walking under ladders, black cats crossing your path, opening umbrellas in the house, breaking mirrors -- these all are said to cause back luck. The number 13 is unlucky, even a lot of hotels do not have a 13th floor.
A penny in the bride's shoe is good luck, and burying a statue in the yard to sell a house and carrying a rabbit foot are superstitions that are so common that everyone knows what it means without explanation.
A few uncommon superstitions are going to be showing themselves soon. The 17-year cicadas will emerge soon, as will a set of superstitions surrounding the bugs. American Indians believed cicadas had evil significance, and the colonists believed they were locusts, a biblical plague of sorts.
Other people have believed that the W on the outer end of the front wings foretold of war. The stories of cicadas stinging people or poisoning fruit with their sting are superstitions believed to be based on the sharp feel of their feet when they land. Cicadas have no stinger.
Many superstitions seem silly, but given time and thought, it is understandable that people believe some of them. Many of the superstitions even have some basis in truth.
So next time you hear a superstition, don't be quick to judge, even if it is silly or ridiculous.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beac ... S1.article
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